Tragic Desires (31 page)

“Tell them not to worry about that. My shit is so damn tight here, no one could bust
in. Tell them I want their addy.”

“Come on, Wolfe. We’re talking the US
military here. They’re not going to give that to you. Don’t be a dickhead.”

He’s right. I write down a series of numbers and dots and he sends it on over.
I’ll get our IT guys to change everything after this is over. A few minutes later, the screen lights up when they activate it from their side. My comfort level is pretty fucking low, even though I know they can’t access anything, but just the fact that the US government is in my system makes my skin crawl.

Now we sit and wait. It takes what feels like a year but the damn thing is launched and then another year passes before it’s over the warehouse where Gemini is. My heart is in my damn throat.

“Okay, we’re live. No activity on the outside,” Leo says.

“No surprise there. I want to see if we can have
a look on anything inside.”

“That will take a few minutes.”

“Right.” He’s acting like I’m in kindergarten.

“Huff, you getting all this?”

“Yeah, boss. Windows all over the fucking place, which surprises me.”

“Me too,” I say.

Leo asks the moronic question, “Why does that surprise you?”

Neither of us answer
s him.

“Huff, what do you think about the roof? Weight bearing?” The building is so old it looks like the roof may be unsafe. I would hate to have one of the guys drop on it and then crash straight through and get hurt or killed in the process.

“Hard to tell. Let’s check it out on the next pass and Leo, see if we can get a closer view of that glass section.” A part of the roof has a very small section a bit of glass on the peak. Huff thinks maybe the drone can get a view of what’s inside.

Since we’re linked to the guys at Peterson on audio, Leo asks, “Did you guys copy that?”

“Roger that.”

Eventually, the screen changes again and we’re getting close to our target. We all stand and focus on the
infrared images. This time we can see bodies moving inside, but it’s not possible to identify them. The glass is a plus as it allows the drone to glimpse what’s inside from above. It looks like at least ten warm bodies from this angle.

“Huff, aren’t those steel girders supporting the roof?”

“Yeah, I think so. I think we can put a few guys up there. They can bust the glass as a diversion and then others can swarm in through the other windows. But—what if they’re rigged?”

“Yeah, I was thinking that too. Can you see any wires on these?”

Huff shakes his head. “No way. The images aren’t clear enough. We’ll have to check for that before we go in.”

Leo is looking at us both. “What do you think?”

“We’re going in,” I answer.

“When?”

My eyes find Huff’s because I want to wait until we hear from my guys. “The middle of the night.” My phone startles me when it rings. It’s my guy in Vegas. “What do you have?”

“I’ve got an old-time
floppy disc, boss.”

Smiling, I say, “Bring it and the team home. Nice work!”

After I move away from Leo, I tell my guy, “Listen to me. This is a matter of national security. Do
not
let that disc out of your possession. You understand me? I cannot stress to you the importance of that thing. As soon as you’re on the G-550, I want you to copy it onto a flash drive. Download it and send it to our secure line. Not the main line we usually use, but the one we have set up for special cases. Got that? You brought that old floppy disc drive, right?”

“Yeah
, boss. I’ll get it taken care of.”

“Once it’s done, put both the disc and the flash drive in the safe.”

“Yes, sir.”

“No stops between there and the plane. If you have to piss, you go in your pants. Call me as soon as you’re on board.”

“Will do.”

“It’s coming around again,” I hear Leo say from the other side of the room.

“Huff, get a log on every window in the place. Then cross-ref it with every satellite pic you can get. I want to see every vantage point we have. I also want to see any back entrances, cars around the building, and so on.”

My brain buzz
es and won’t rest until my guys are home safe with that damn disc. Two minutes later my phone rings—my team in Austin. I leave the conference room to talk. They’ve found an old floppy disc too. I give them the same instructions I gave the Vegas team. I’m not sure if Rachel Miller split the info and put it on two discs or created a dummy disc. Either way, I’m not taking any chances. My concern with the Austin team is they don’t have a secure line, other than the computer and floppy disc drive they’re carrying, to transfer it. I won’t breathe easy until they’re back here. If anything happens to any of those men, I’ll hold myself responsible.

When I walk back in the conference room, I tell Leo that we have enough to get Gemini out.

“What do you mean? Have you confirmed she’s in there?”

“Yeah
, I have. I knew she was in there before the drone did its flyover. She’s wearing a microchip.”

“So, how many agents do you need?”

I laugh. “Zero.”

“What?”

“You heard me. I’ll handle this on my own.”

“No, you won’t. The Company will be there.”

“Leo, if the CIA shows up, this operation is sure to fail. You have a gigantic leak in your organization. Your agents have become grossly incompetent, to the point of ridiculous. I don’t know if it’s the bureaucratic bullshit you have to deal with or what, but you guys FUBARed this one. I refuse to allow you on this op.”

“Wolfe
,” he threatens. “It is fucked up beyond all recognition. But this can come back to fuck
you
.”

“I think you guys did that to me a while back when someone leaked my name to
Aali Imaam. Yeah, they know I’m one of you guys. That’s how good your agents are. But hey, thanks for getting the drone. That was awful nice of you. If this works out the way I think it will, I’ll have something for you in the very near future. Make yourself comfortable here while we go to work.”

The expression on his face is priceless. I leave one man in the conference room with him to ensure he doesn’t go anywhere.

A few hours
later, we have everything we need. We’re going to get two guys on the roof, and the rest coming through the windows. The big disturbance will take place through the glass windows on the roof. We’ll set C-4 explosives and let the damn thing blow like a nice little Fourth of July for our buddies inside. While they’re distracted, we’ll flow in from the windows. I usually like stealth, but in this case a blast of surprise will work better for us.

All the
guys have returned and I breathe easier. We have both the discs along with the copies, and the data is entered into our system. She was smart, Rachel Miller. Both discs contained partial information. One was necessary for the other. Neither disc could give whoever found it the appropriate information so one would’ve been useless without the other. The worst part about it all is all that radioactive material is buried in the desert in Nevada. We have no idea if it’s even leaked out of the containers it’s in or whether the area around it has been contaminated. I have to wonder if Rachel even knew the magnitude of what she held in her possession all these years and that by taking that information, she perhaps prevented the largest catastrophic event this world could ever imagine. 

I check my watch and see we have about three hours until we need to get ready to go. Huff comes in and asks if I need anything to eat.

“I suppose I should, huh?”

“Yeah, and it’s an order.” The
sandwich tastes like sawdust thrown on top of a churning sea called my stomach. I force it down and chase it with some Gatorade.

“Drex, you’ll get her back. I know you will.”

“I hope so, Huff.”

“You really love her, don’t you? I know it’s not my business, but you’re different around her.
Gentler. Affectionate. It’s a nice change.”

“I don’t know what I’ll do if anything happens to her.”

“It won’t. You said yourself they want her alive. Our plan is solid. Believe in yourself, Drex. You’re the best.”

My insecurities slither all over me as t
he next couple of hours creep by. As we’re suiting up, it’s clear everyone knows their role and our mission: get in, get out. Bring Gemini home alive. So I ram my way past every doubt I own and put on my game face. This is how I need to be and how I will be for my men. And for Gem.

“Guys, listen up here. These dudes don’t play by our rules. They don’t give a shit about their lives. They will sacrifice themselves in the name of Allah. Don’t underestimate them. When we get inside, make sure you can see their hands at all times. IEDs are commonplace. We want to be positive that all doors and windows are free from wires before we even attempt to open them. And that goes for Gemini too. She may be wired so that if we move her, everything blows. Where’s Juan?”

“Right here.”

“You have everything you need?” Juan is our explosives expert. If it’s a bomb, he knows which wire to cut.

“Yes, boss. And as long as I have enough time, we’ll be good.”

“Okay, we go on night vision—we’re gonna cut power to the warehouse before we go in. All on board here?”

“Yes, sir,” everyone answers. This is it. When we come back,
I come back with Gemini, or I don’t come back at all. 

We’re in place
. The single patrol in the parking lot is taken out with a quick chokehold. Now he’s bound, gagged and immobilized. We wait for the guys on the roof to set the explosives and bust up the party. We want the surprise to have the maximum effect and not give them any chance of regrouping. Getting away will be a problem for the terrorists because my men have flattened every one of their tires. One thing I know for certain is that under pressure, these guys convert to anarchy and then their plans usually crumble. My problem is I don’t want them setting anything off that could harm Gemini.

The back window gives me the best view of what’s going on inside and when I get my first
solid look, everything in me seizes. I am momentarily frozen as I stare at Gemini.

“Fuck.”

Blake’s hand clamps down on my arm so hard, it brings me back into focus. Then I hear his voice in my headset. “Command to Team Two. Break off. Do you copy?”

“Team Two leader copies. What’s the
sitch?”

“Target is wearing a vest.”

“Fuck,” I hear Team Two leader respond. “Team Two is in place and will wait for alternate orders.”

My brain buzz
es with so much shit, I can’t think straight. Blake looks at me, covers up his mike, and asks, “Can you lead this op?”

Shaking my head
, I ask, “What are our options?”

“Create an outside diversion and take them out one by one, or make some firepower out here to bring them outside. You said yourself that Gemini was a bargaining chip
and you doubted they would kill her. So what’s it gonna be?”

“Do you think they’ll fall for the diversion
… taking them out one by one?”

“Drex, you know them better than I
do. You tell me.”

“Get Huff over here.”

A couple minutes later, Huff shows and we run everything by him.

“Drex, they’ll try to bluff you. Do you think you can hold out? Emotionally?” Huff asks.

“I’m just gonna have to, won’t I?”

“Outside diversion then, one by one. If that doesn’t work, we move to firepower
,” Huff decides.

“Let all teams know,” I tell them. “And pull the guys off the roof. We need them down here.”

Half an hour and a stomach ulcer later, we’re all set. We decide to begin with tripping a car alarm. It works and brings one man out. Pop. He’s taken care of.

The next one is easy. We bust a car window.
When the first guy doesn’t return, two others come outside to see where he is. Wam-bam. Three down, seven to go. My eyes are glued to Gemini and the dudes inside aren’t paying any attention to her. Five guys are arguing now and gesturing toward the back door. This time, they send out two armed guys. I wonder why they didn’t do that the last time. We’re not worried, though, because they can’t see once they get out here and they go down without a fight.

W
e’re down to five and we cut their power. Sweat pours off me and they’ve finally figured out what’s going on. Gemini starts screaming and they begin to yell.

“Move now! Use the rear entrance since we know it’s not rigged. No windows. I repeat
, no windows! Juan, get to Gemini, STAT!”

It’s dark as pitch inside and we hear yelling and things crashing. My heart is jammed in my throat and I pray they’re not doing anything to her. I’m listening to everything they’re saying and they’re freaking out, yelling at each other, blaming each other for the
screw-up. This is exactly what I expected from them. They’re terrible at teamwork unless their real leader is around. This can either work for or against us. If they get trigger happy, we’re fucked. That vest on Gemini can take out this entire building, so I hope they don’t set anything off.

We get inside and when I see Gem, I almost go into cardiac arrest. A man has his arm around her throat
, a gun to her head. Another man is next to them and he’s holding a cell phone in his hand. I can only assume it’s a detonator. They know we’re inside and can see them, so I waste no time.

“
Let’s stay calm.” I speak to them in Pashto. In the darkness with my night-vision goggles, I can see the surprise on their faces. “You know you don’t want to kill her or me, because if you do, your boss will never get the information he’s looking for. And if he doesn’t get it, the head of Aali Imaam, Khalid Ahmad, will shame you and the members of your family. Now, put your weapon down, along with the detonator, and we’ll have a civilized discussion. Or if you choose not to, my snipers will take you out in the next five seconds. What will it be?”

The man with the gun drops his weapon, but the man holding the detonator doesn’t. He starts praying to Allah, and then I interrupt him.

“Allah will forsake you because there is so much more at stake here than just us. What Khalid Ahmad wants from this girl is so huge, even you can’t imagine. And if you destroy us, then Allah will never allow you to enter Jannah. Is that what you really want? You will bring shame upon your name, your family’s name, upon the name of your children.”

“How do I know you speak the truth?”

“Because I have what Ahmad wants. But you won’t know that until you drop that detonator.”

He drops it
and then smirks. “No matter. It’s set to go off in thirty minutes.” Then he drops to his knees and puts his hands behind his head.

“Juan! Get on this now!” I
yell. I run to Gemini and pull the tape from her wrists.

“Are you okay, baby
?”

“
This is going to explode! You need to get out of here!”

“No, Juan is going to disarm it.”

The lights come on and I lift my goggles off. Gemini’s face is a mess. Bruised and cut, they’ve knocked her around quite a bit. Juan kneels in front of her and we cut the cable ties that bind her ankles.

“Jesus, boss, this one’s a mess.”

“I don’t care, just get the fucker off her.”

There are so many damn wires, I don’t know how he can tell which one does what. I’m holding the cell phone
—a timer—and it’s counting down.

“Can you lift your arms?” Juan asks her.

“I’ll do it for her.” Juan is making me nervous—he’s sweating.

“How you doing there, Juan?”

He looks up at me but doesn’t say anything. What the fuck is that all about? There is enough C-4 in this vest that I’m not sure how they stuffed it all in here. I bend my head down and kiss the top of Gemini’s head.

“More light. I need more light.” Is there an edge of panic to Juan’s voice?

“We need a flashlight here!” I yell. Several men come running and shine lights on the exposed wires.

“Huff! Get over here!” Huff runs over and I tell him, “I want you to interrogate those bastards and find out
who the hell they were getting their information from inside DWInvestigations or The Company. I want to know who the leaky pipe is. And get everyone outside now. Far enough away from here so no one gets hurt if this thing blows. Got it?”

“Got it, Drex.”

“Juan? Any closer?”

“Working on it, boss.”

“Drex?” Gemini asks. “If he’s not close at five minutes, I want you to run. You hear me?”

I move to her side and crouch so we can look at each other.
I put her hands on my shoulders, “Are you kidding me? There’s not a thing in this world that would make me run from you. And if I can’t have you in my life, well, then, we leave this world together, babe, hand in hand. Got that?” I kiss her cheek. “Don’t cry. We’ll be fine.” I glance at the timer and we’re down to fifteen minutes.

“Juan?”

“I know, boss, but this looks like the biggest pile of shit I’ve ever seen. It’s like they crammed all this crap in here and hope it works. I’m not even sure this thing will go off.”

“Yeah, well, we’re not gonna test your theory, are we?”

“No, sir. I was just sayin’.”

“Good. Stop
sayin’ and start prayin’ ’cuz this is a Gem right here, Juan. So get her the fuck out of this.”

“Got it
, sir.”

I hold my breath as he
snips one and then another wire. The timer on the floor stops at eleven minutes. We smile at each other. As I reach to take the vest off Gemini, Juan says, “Whoa, not so fast, sir. Sometimes they put trigger wires on these, so hang on.” He tells Gemini to scoot forward in the chair and he looks underneath the vest and sure enough, there’s a tiny wire attached to the vest and then her dress. If the vest is pulled off, the bomb will detonate.

“Okay, let me check this out,” Juan says.

“Can you cut it?” I ask.

“Not unless I know where it leads. Sometimes cutting these things will make them detonate too. Just hang tight
, ma’am.” Juan looks around the room a second and spies a table. “I need her to lie down on that table so I can see where that wire leads.”

Gemini looks up at me and I give her my hand. She stands but her legs are wobbly. “I’m shaky.”

“I got you, babe.”

“Sir, don’t let her fall and don’t grab her around that area.”

We get to the table and she lies down. Juan takes a utility knife and carefully cuts into the vest, exposing the wires in the back. We see where the wire leads and he finds the terminals so he can cut them. When it’s completely disarmed, we help Gemini stand and remove the vest.

“Juan, get all the C-4 out of that thing.” Then I turn to Gemini and pull her into my arms. “You okay, babe?”

“Now I am. You’re sweating.”

“Uh, yeah. My girl
was just laced into a shit ton of C-4.” I kiss her. “God, Gem, are you hurt? Did those bastards hurt you? I was so damn worried and we had to wait to get in here. Shit.”

“I’m okay, now that you’re here.”

I run my hands over her, to let myself know she’s good. Then it hits me. The red haze of rage. “Just hang here a sec. I’ll be right back.”

Fury washes over me so quickly. My feet carry me outside to where Huff and Blake have the scumbags lined up
. I locate their so-called leader and before I can comprehend what I’m doing, my fists slam into him like a machine on repeat. Over and over I pound his face, body, anywhere I can make contact.

“How dare you strap a fucking piece of shit bomb to her
!” My men are yelling but I don’t really hear them. My engines are running but there’s no comprehension in me other than revenge. When he’s nothing but a bloody mass, I move to the next man and then the next until somewhere her voice busts through my layers of madness.

“Drexel, stop
! Please, you have to stop this! They’re not worth it. And you’re so much more than this.”

I turn my head and her
face comes into focus. Regret hammers me. My emotions fly all over the board. I want to kill those men. I want to weep with relief and I want to protect her from anything that could ever hurt her again. Tears burn trails down her cheeks and I want to wipe them away, but I can’t because my hands are stained in blood. I wrap her in my arms and kiss the tears away instead.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“For what?”

“For this. For you seeing me do this.
For not doing a better job of protecting you. For failing you. For you having to go through this. Oh God, Gem, I wanted them all dead.”

“Failing me? You’ve never failed me. You’ve saved me when I didn’t know I needed saving and pulled me out of the worst place I’ve ever been when everyone told me there was no help for me. And here you come again, risking your life for me. How can you possibly think that you failed me? I’d be dead without you. Can we go home now?”

“I don’t want to touch you like this.”

“Like what?”

“I’m all bloody.”

“I don’t give a damn.”
She grabs me and kisses me. “Thank you for finding me.”

I laugh. “The microchip. But we had to wait until we had everything we needed before we came in here guns blazing.”

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“Oh, babe, you won’t believe it.
It’s a long story. But I’ve got to make a dreaded phone call first.”